Sex Crimes And Refugees

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 From top: German coverage of the Cologne New’s Year’s Eve incident; Dr Julien Mercille

The reported sex attacks in Cologne, Germany, over the new year provided far right groups the perfect opportunity to demonise refugees.

Dr Julien Mercille writes:

Many migrants and refugees fleeing war zones in the Middle East have recently reached Europe. Sadly, they have been used by some in political circles and the media to stir up racist feelings across the continent.

There’s nothing better than a Muslim to act as a scapegoat for the failure of European governments to provide jobs and essential services, or simply to rally citizens behind the flag irrationally so that they follow their leaders blindly.

And when refugees or migrants commit crimes against women as in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve, far-right groups were handed a Christmas gift, the perfect opportunity to whip up fear and xenophobia.

To be clear, the reported sexual attacks in Cologne and elsewhere in Europe need to be dealt with firmly. The correct response is to pursue the perpetrators, whatever their migration status or ethnic origin.

But the wrong response is to blame and punish and expel all Muslims or refugees. Germany has by now received over a million refugees and migrants. Some will commit crimes, but most won’t. Stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs shouldn’t be the basis of policy.

As Amnesty International stated, “The German government must not allow the crimes committed by a number of men to dictate the fate of over 1.1 million refugees in Germany”.

It’s easy to see the racist double standards at play in the media and among certain political groups. For example, in 2014 there was a big report on abuse of women in Europe published by the European Union’s fundamental rights watchdog, which interviewed 42,000 women across the 28 EU member states.

The report found an astonishing fact: 1 in 3 European women have been the victim of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, with the majority of perpetrators being men (and we’re not talking about inappropriate emails or phone calls here, but about real violence, things like to be beaten, burned, slapped, or forced into sexual intercourse).

On top of that, about 50% of women in the EU have experienced sexual harassment—that’s 90 million women.

This is the real scandal about the abuse of women in Europe. Yet, you won’t find too much coverage of that in the media, and certainly not the hysterical coverage found in some outlets about the Cologne events.

Moreover, a few days ago, at almost the same moment as the Cologne attacks happened, a similar tale of abuse surfaced in Germany: an investigator found that 231 boys had been physically and sexually abused, including raped, in a Catholic choir between the 1960s and 1990s.

Guess who led the choir? Rev. Georg Ratzinger, the brother of former Pope Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger). You’d think you’d have a scandal here about the Catholic Church that the media might want to expose. But all we heard about are the crimes of the Muslim refugees.

Right-wing political groups have used the Cologne events to demonise refugees, who they called “Rapefugees”. For example, Lutz Bachmann, the leader of the far-right anti-Islam Pegida movement, can be seen here smiling and wearing his t-shirt that says “Rapefugees not Welcome”.

The German media also poured oil on the fire. For example, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, a leading liberal newspaper, used a picture of a black arm reaching right in between the legs of a white woman (top).

This image was used to illustrate an article in which a psychologist said that every time young Muslim men meet with women they take it as a highly sexualised encounter. The editor-in-chief of the paper later had to apologise and wrote: “We regret the fact that these illustrations could have hurt the feelings of our readers and apologize for that”.

Also, the conservative magazine Focus ran a front-page cover showing a naked white woman covered with black hand marks (centre). One editor described it as “disgustingly racist and sexist.”

But the magazine didn’t apologise, it even defended its image, saying that it was used “to symbolically present what happened in Cologne. Therefore we’re showing as representative for the many female victims a woman who has been made a sex object and been degraded—but who is determined to fight back”.

It’s easy to see how fast xenophobic fears can spread. Migrant men have already been banned from a swimming pool [] in Germany, in addition to protests against refugees in general.

In short, we need to keep a cool head and treat sexual crimes for what they are without indicting refugees as a group—explicitly or implicitly.

Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. His column appears here every Monday. Follow Julien on Twitter: @JulienMercille

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175 thoughts on “Sex Crimes And Refugees

  1. John M

    Demonised ? Sorry, but no. Mass assault by 1000’s of ‘refugees/migrants’ and then publicising it is not demonising them. Are the citizens of Koln not entitled to freedom to go about their daily business unmolested by a group of people who are, frankly, guests of the State ? It’s only ‘demonising’ if it’s not true.

    1. ahyeah

      You missed this bit ->

      “The German government must not allow the crimes committed by a number of men to dictate the fate of over 1.1 million refugees in Germany.”

      1. All the good ones fly south for winter

        Except no one in authority is proposing the mass deportation of 1.1 million.

  2. Gers

    Tell us something we don’t know. Please. I quite like the “Rapefugees not Welcome”. Unless even those who committed the assault are welcome?

    1. Dόn Pídgéόní

      I like the term rapefugees – it identifies the biggest tools in the box quickly and succinctly

        1. Dόn Pídgéόní

          And here you are…

          Do you have a point to make or are you just going to follow me around saying “trigger” or “apologist” because you read those on Twitter?

          1. human

            Typical you have to turn the conversation to you being a woman rather than defending you lunatic position

      1. Inopera

        we should demand a fuller, comprehensive inquest into sex abuse by the rcc in Ireland as in Boston.

  3. Eoin

    So a minority of 1% out of a million refugees are potential rapists or at the very least sexual abusers. Still hard to put a positive spin on that. There’s is also evidence of the press being muffled in regards to reporting refugee crimes. This isn’t helping either.

    1. Dόn Pídgéόní

      As are a minority of men and yet its #notallmen when all men are accused right? These things happen all the time to women, albeit not on the stage seen at the station, but then that is a little more complicated than just refugee men attacking women given that there was a specific aim of committing robbery there as well.

      Can we not say this is terrible and should never happen to anyone ever, regardless of where you are from? Can we not look at the Syrian men who came out in support of the women who were attacked as an example of this?

  4. classter

    The Catholic thing is a non-argument. The Catholic Church in the Western World has been absolutely devastated by the child sex abuse scandals. Mass-going amongst Irish Catholics is at about a third of what is was 20 years ago. No priest can be introduced as a film or tv character anymore without addressing the child abuse aspect – either your character is an abuser or he is one good man battling against the odds in a society that reviles him for what he is.

    1. Sam

      The Catholic thing is a non-argument. The Catholic Church in the Western World has been absolutely devastated by the child sex abuse scandals.

      No, Classter, you don’t understand what devastated means. When so many of the perps were moved around to avoid and conviction and those aiding and abetting them in escaping justice faced no consequences – then it’s become unpopular. When a shed load of bishops do the perp walk, and the Vatican isn’t a super rich organisation, then you might say ‘devastated’, but it’s not. It’s had reduced cash flow from the wealthier countries and still has its fingers on schools and hospitals.

      No priest can be introduced as a film or tv character anymore without addressing the child abuse aspect – either your character is an abuser or he is one good man battling against the odds in a society that reviles him for what he is.

      If only priests could get the same positive media treatment as muslims do eh?
      All those tv shows constant featuring despicable priests coming for our kids, and sometimes needing to be tortured to give up the information on the pedo-ring. What channel are those shows on?
      All those political candidates whose votes go up when they suggest that the Catholic Church not be allowed to send any more papal nuncios or run any new schools… which party are they from?

      What’s being asked for here is the same thing that a lot of priests ask for, don’t tar everyone with the same brush.
      It’s a really simple rule.
      If they commit the crime or help cover it up, they are a problem. If not, then leave them be.
      What part of that is tricky?

      1. classter

        I am not suggesting that the Church has sufficiently repented or suffered by the systemic/institutionalised failures of its clergy & leadership.

        I am suggesting that to implicitly suggest, as Merceille does, that child abuse (physical & sexual) in the RCC has been ignored by the media/public in recent times is complete nonsense.

        As a non-believing, a la carte cultural Catholic, my experiences with the Church have generally been quite positive. Yet I, and many like me, want nothing to do with the Church – mainly because of the child abuse scandals.

    2. Nice Anne (Dammit)

      No priest can be introduced as a film or tv character anymore without addressing the child abuse aspect
      Where did you get this from? It sounds like something you just made up!

      1. classter

        Name a couple of films in recent times with a priest in it which did not involve mention of child abuse?(Spotlight, Deliver Us From Evil, Doubt, Primal Fear…).

        Calvary cleverly played off this by having a good priest be punished for the sins of his colleagues.

        1. Nice Anne {Dammit}

          Only a couple? Why not give me a decent challenge?

          1994 was the first year the scandal broke in America, so let’s find some films from 2000 onwards which have RCC priests in them that were not portrayed as kiddie fiddlers….

          Keeping the Faith (2000)
          Quills (2000)
          Return to Me (2000)
          Stigmata (2000)
          Edges of the Lord (2001)
          Amen (2002)
          Luther (2003)
          Thérèse (2004)
          Exorcist IV: The Beginning (2004)
          Salem’s Lot (remake 2004)
          Sinners and Saints (2004)
          Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
          Into Great Silence (2005)
          Confession (2005)
          Constantine (2005)
          The Prophecy Forsaken (2005)
          The conclave (2006)
          Baptism of Blood (2006)
          The Omen (Remake 2006)
          Sinner (2007)
          Gran Torino (2008)
          Sister Smile (2009)
          Thirst (2009)
          Into Temptation (2009)
          For Christ’s Sake (2009)
          Sister Smile (2009)
          V (2009 – Present)
          Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010)
          We have a pope (2011)
          The Rite (2011)
          The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2011)
          White elephant (2012)
          Cristiada (2012) One of Peter o’Tooles last film roles
          The Father Brown series 2013 – present
          The Nun (2013)
          The order (2013)
          In Bob we trust (2013)
          God Willing (2015)
          There be dragons (2015)
          The Priests (2015)

          So there you go. Proof beyond doubt that priests CAN be introduced as a film or tv character anymore without addressing the child abuse aspect

          1. B Bop

            Jay…sus that’s some Priest/Film/Normal Priest role research.
            How did you do that??
            Or was the 6 hour delay in answering earlier query your time spent in furtive holy googling?!

          2. Nice Anne {Dammit}

            10 seconds to search “Catholic priests” film TV.
            15 mins to read the plot summaries for the films I was unfamiliar with which were listed on the 1st two sites returned.
            Jobs a good’ un.

          3. cluster

            Two things.

            1) Most of those films sunk without a trace & don’t form a significant part of popular culture. The majority of your films were never shown in Ireland – not in the cinema & not on terrestial tv!

            You have even included films written & produced by members of Opus Dei!

            2) Some of your examples aren’t even about priests – an example being ‘Into Great Silence’ a documentary about a contemplative order of monks! Or at best, the priest is an oblique character, such as ‘the Nun’ or ‘Therese’, So minor a character that I can’t figure out if there was any mention of Baptism of Blood too this about monks, not priests.

            3) You are lying anyway. Child abuse is mentioned/discussed in a few of the examples (for which I could actually find any information!) – In Bob we Trust, Into Temptation

            Anyway, you are completely disingenuous, ie full of sh!t

          4. Nice Anne (Dammit)

            Awwww are you changing the goalposts because you were trounced in your weak, unresearced, undefendable, nonsense assertion whilst having a strop? Poor diddims.

            You said: No priest can be introduced as a film or tv character anymore without addressing the child abuse aspect

            Now you are claiming they have to be box office successes in Ireland / shown on terrestrial TV, part of the national psyche / popular culture, there has to be NO mention of child abuse anywhere in the film, the priest has to be a major character and the film cannot (allegedly) be associated with Opus Dei.

            Fine, that cuts the list down to:
            Keeping the Faith (2000)
            Quills (2000)
            Stigmata (2000)
            Luther (2003)
            Exorcist IV: The Beginning (2004)
            Salem’s Lot (remake 2004)
            Sinners and Saints (2004)
            Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
            Confession (2005)
            Constantine (2005)
            The Omen (Remake 2006)
            Sinner (2007)
            Gran Torino (2008)
            Thirst (2009)
            Into Temptation (2009)
            V (2009 – Present)
            Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010)
            We have a pope (2011)
            The Rite (2011)
            The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2011)
            Cristiada (2012) One of Peter o’Tooles last film roles
            The Father Brown series 2013 – present
            There be dragons (2015)
            The Priests (2015)

            I look forward to your disparaging remarks once again proving you are a sore loser of an argument.

            Oh and Amazon and IMDB are REALLY great sources of plots for the next time you struggle.with finding information.

            Toodles
            X

  5. swayingright

    The idea that this was widely and disproportionately covered by the media is false. Part of the reason that such outrage that exists is because of the cover up by German media and German officials. People have genuine concerns about the potential for successful integration of millions of refugees and rather than try to abate those fears through debate, Mercille tries to shut down debate by calling the media racist.

    The cover up has echoes of the Rotherham child exploitation scandal. Rather than trying to shut down debate, is it not possible to let European citizens discuss the future of their own societies?

      1. swayingright

        Maybe a debate as to viability of allowing vast numbers of undocumented and potentially dangerous economic migrants into Europe without a solid plan as to how to either integrate them into European societies or as to when/if they will be repatriated to their respective countries of origin.

          1. Deluded

            Yes- it says in the article it was recorded by journalists in Cologne on Jan 1st and the articles published on Jan 2nd…

        1. classter

          Only fuzzy details were providied initially.

          Even now, I know less details about it than would usually be the case for a story of that magnitude.

  6. Taking the Poisson

    There was the bones of a decent article and opinion piece here trying to get out.

    Unfortunately due to lack of basic talent, reasoning ability or practical common sense Dr M failed. Again.

  7. Owen C

    I think the issue here, ultimately, is that refugees/migrants (legal, permanent, temporary, illegal) are guests in another country, and therefore their residence in that country can be revoked, for any number of economic or judicial reasons. They are different to permanent citizens who cannot be deported, so the comparison on Catholic priests etc is not necessarily useful. You are forced to put up with your own citizens worst behaviour without the option of deportation. Migrants’ behaviour is much more of a choice, as they are guests in your country already in receipt of goodwill or support of some form or another. I completely agree with Julien that the actions of a minority should not necessarily impact on the actions of the rest, but the point here is that these guests are not subject to the same residency rights as citizens, so they can and should therefore be dealt with differently, by both the government as well as the media.

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      “They are different to permanent citizens who cannot be deported, so the comparison on Catholic priests etc is not necessarily useful.”

      Grand, yeah. Tell that to a victim. ‘Hey, your rapist was actually a permanent citizen. Can you imagine how much worse you’d feel if they were only here on a temporary visa?’

      “You are forced to put up with your own citizens worst behaviour without the option of deportation. Migrants’ behaviour is much more of a choice,”

      Jesus. You *want* to view refugees in a negative light.

      1. Owen C

        No, but you want to view the issue of migrants and any criminality some of them are involved in as the exact same as citizens and any criminality some of them are involved in. The fact that you cannot see the difference, legally, culturally or politically, suggests you’re not going to add much to this discussion other than your usual whingy bile.

          1. Owen C

            You can deport a refugee, who is a guest of the state and has restricted rights on many issues already (residence, welfare, voting, certain property rights etc). You can’t deport a citizen (assuming no previous alternative citizenship), who has permanent legal residence and generally speaking full rights in line with all other citizens. Why is this so difficult for you to understand? Migrants are legally, culturally and politically different to citizens, so dealing with them differently is completely rational.

          2. MoyestWithExcitement

            “Migrants are legally, culturally and politically different to citizens”

            There ya go. It doesn’t take too much scratching to spot one of your kind.

            “You can’t deport a citizen (assuming no previous alternative citizenship), who has permanent legal residence and generally speaking full rights in line with all other citizens. Why is this so difficult for you to understand?”

            So you can throw one rapist in jail and you can throw the other out of the country if you want. And what difference does that make to the rape which has already taken place? Try and think this one through for once.

          3. Owen C

            “Migrants are legally, culturally and politically different to citizens”

            This seems more a statement of fact than evidence of racism. And therein lies the problem. You see racists under the bed. You have no ability to rationally deal with the fact of this matter. You are getting boring at this point. Please bore other people.

          4. MoyestWithExcitement

            So explain then how the average migrant is culturally different and why this difference even needs to be considered. And what does “legally different” actually mean in relation to human beings?

          5. Owen C

            I don’t mean that they, the migrants themselves, are culturally different (though in many cases they are, but that’s a separate issue), i mean the issue of how European societies deal with migrants is a cultural issue in most countries, ie we will deal with our fellow citizens differently to how we will deal with migrants (of legal or illegal nature). This is a fact, not an issue of racism, but simply how most societies deal with migrants in the real world. There is practically no society on earth that does not encounter this issue on at least some level. If you cannot see that the average German will be take a greater active interest in allegations of criminality from migrants vs permanent citizens, then you really are missing half the story here. You could more bluntly call this skepticism of strangers, which they do not use to the same extent on their own citizens.

            Legally different means exactly what it obviously means – the legal system will treat them differently and has different legal options available. As i said, you cannot deport a German priest convicted of a crime, but you can deport a Syrian refugee convicted of a crime. That is why the whole notion of deportation is being discussed – it is a legal remedy that is available to German authorities.

          6. MoyestWithExcitement

            “I don’t mean that they, the migrants themselves, are culturally different”

            You literally said “Migrants are legally, culturally and politically different to citizens”. When did ‘X is culturally different’ come to mean ‘X is not culturally different’?

            ‘ie we will deal with our fellow citizens differently to how we will deal with migrants’

            In what way? How do *you* deal “culturally” with migrants that’s different to Irish people?

          7. rotide

            “Migrants are legally, culturally and politically different to citizens.”

            What exactly is your problem with this statement Moyest? It is 100% factually and demonstrably true. There is nothing racist about a statement of fact.

          8. MoyestWithExcitement

            Ok, well Owen backtracked on his words when I asked him this question so maybe you can give it a go. How is the average migrant “culturally different” to the rest of us?

          9. rotide

            Because they come from a different culture than we do. Hence they are culturally different.

            Apparently you live under a rock and not a bridge as most people assume so for citations, check your facebook feed for any number of articles written titled “The biggest differences you will notice living in Ireland as an american”. The word Craic features heavily as does the refusal to hang up the phone, they are quite amusing. You might enjoy them.

            Now, maybe you should look at the fact that you see racism everywhere and maybe think that it’s you thats inferring racism because of your own racial prejudices.

          10. MoyestWithExcitement

            So they use different slang terms? Is that really all you’ve got? Why is them using different slang terms even worth mentioning?

          11. MoyestWithExcitement

            So in what way should we treat English people differently considering this whole conversation occurred after Owen said we should treat migrants differently because of their differing culture?

          12. rotide

            Actually his point was about how they were legally different. His point was that you can deport them if they commit a crime. He was simply pointing out they any immigrant differs from a citizen.

          13. Owen C

            ” we should treat migrants differently because of their differing culture?”

            No. I said we DO treat them differently, not because of their culture (i clarified, not backtracked, what i meant), but because of our cultural and politcal views on migrants, and our legal set up as regards migrants. Migrants don’t get to vote – is that racism? Migrants can’t buy property in some countries – is that racism? Migrants would not be able to adopt or claim social welfare, and in certain situations children born to migrants are not automatically entitled to citizenship in that country of birth – is this racism? So why should we not treat migrants differently when it comes to examining and addressing criminality?

          14. MoyestWithExcitement

            “No. I said we DO treat them differently, not because of their culture”
            You also said this; “Migrants’ behaviour is much more of a choice”. You agree with treating them differently.

            “Migrants don’t get to vote – is that racism? Migrants can’t buy property in some countries – is that racism? Migrants would not be able to adopt or claim social welfare, and in certain situations children born to migrants are not automatically entitled to citizenship in that country of birth – is this racism?”

            Potentially. It’s all down to the ‘why’. Is it racist to deny an asylum seeker a vote? No. Is it racist to deny them the right to buy a house? Could very well be, yes.

            “So why should we not treat migrants differently when it comes to examining and addressing criminality?”

            Ask a victim if they’d feel any better about being raped if their attacker was from the same country as them.

        1. Owen C

          Interesting. Could you explain or point out the specific parts of this discussion which suggest this racism on my part?

          1. Lactobacillus Viatoripatuit

            You’re banging your head against a wall here, Owen. This lad is so far SJW he’s a walking hashtag. #notallrapefugees

          2. rotide

            There is nothing even close to racist about that statement of fact.

            Moyest is just bored and ready to mount up for another crusade

    2. Sam

      The issue here is a bit more complex than that.
      There’s also the fact that sexual assault is ridiculously common, and stern action against changing societal attitudes towards it isn’t (for some reason) an election issue – perhaps because politicans don’t want to risk losing votes from a sector of society who blame the victim or get defensive against what they call ‘Social Justice Warriors’ and feminists.

      Whereas, pointing fingers at migrants is usually good for a vote when times are bad. The media loves the headlines, and the internet loves the spectacle and the catchy memes about the muslims out for the hedonistic white flesh of western women.

      The debate needs to happen, but it would be a better debate if the media didn’t hype things up. Some of the ‘genuine concerns’ are based on hype.

      A large criminal gang targeted a busy area, mostly for robbery and some of the victims were raped by these criminals.
      The failure there is on the police, because it was well known that gangs were operating there.
      If it was a gang of local youths, would the media be calling for a curfew on the under 25s?
      Would people be spreading just as many internet memes that the youth of today are coming to rape us all?

  8. J

    “But the wrong response is to blame and punish and expel all Muslims or refugees”. That has not been the response of the German government nor the German people . Angela has discussed the need for greater integration and deportation for those responsible for the crime.
    “This is the real scandal about the abuse of women in Europe. Yet, you won’t find too much coverage of that in the media, and certainly not the hysterical coverage found in some outlets about the Cologne events” .A mass organised public attack on women on New Year’s eve did not garner any attention in the press initially. In fact it was covered up by the police and media. Why? Given it’s history, it has been taboo in German to ascribe specific traits to a particular culture/race in Germany.

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      “Why?”

      Probably worried that racists would see the story as validation for their racism which, in turn, would validate them in spreading their racism which, in turn, would influence idiots to bring physical and/or psychological pain on innocent people because they look a bit brown.

      1. ReproBertie

        Or, you know, the media outlets were short staffed due to the holiday, it took time for the extent of the attacks to be reliased by the police and the media were caught off guard, left playing catch up while people accused them of cover up.

        It’s easy to cry conspiracy when the reality is usually simple incompetence.

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          Considering how racist those front covers are above, that’s probably the most likely explanation.

        2. Macconnait

          And Sweden coving up assaults by Muslim refugees/migrants at their version of Electric Picnic for TWO years? They on holidays aswell? Belgium covering up assaults on their rail network for the past year? Care to explain that one? There was also another mass assault on women holding a “refugees welcome” party on a boat in Colonge a few days before. The assaults continued despite the organisers pleas via megaphone to stop: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/634815/Cologne-attacks-fury-migrant-sex-cover-up-refugee-event-groping-Germany that was also covered up although by the organisers, not the media (they didn’t get the chance)

          1. ReproBertie

            Macconait prepare for a shock but the lack of reporting on events in Sweden and Belgium are in no way related to the German media’s slow response to events in Cologne and other German cities. The German media are openly admitting they dropped the ball on this one and citing the same reasons I gave. The notion that it’s some big cover up is pure speculation.

  9. Bruncvik

    So if I read this right, his argument was “We were raping and molesting our women and children for a long time, so we need to give a fair chance to new migrants.” I’d like to take his classes.

    1. Sam

      You’d have to be determined to only see what you want to see in order to draw that conclusion from such a long winded piece full of qualifiers.

  10. mauriac

    who could have foreseen that taking over half a million repressed young Arab men ,mostly from dictatorships, would cause huge problems and stir up a backlash ? The clock is ticking for Angela.

    1. B Bop

      THIS to Mauriac.
      Enough with the racist/non racist…hug everyone…leftie/right verbal diarrhoea…(Moyest indeed)
      The basic point is this…culturally very different, repressed men from these countries, under dictatorship, causing carnage in a Europe which has emerged into a somewhat democratic place, rather than medieval backwardness.
      As for the despicable Catholic priest abominations…Jesus wept etc.
      No-where has ever been a peaceful utopia.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        “No-where has ever been a peaceful utopia.”

        So why are you idiots whining about a million people inevitably having some criminals in it?

  11. DubLoony

    Came across this little gem, its a film about how west Germany dealt with the influx of east Germans refugees.
    The similarities with the concerns of today are interesting. At the time the concern was that they would be communist spies or former Nazis.

    The solution to single men was to house them with settled east German families. The families got houses on condition that they take in a few single guys. The single men paid rent, helping family finances, the families had meals and someone that the men could talk and relate to and helped settled them in as well.
    Perhaps a similar system could be set up again?
    The Films of Ernest Kleinberg: People Without Place
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TgsuSWkrSU

    1. Deluded

      Thank you Dubloony: that looks interesting.
      I worked in (West) Germany at that time and remember distinctly the proliferation of “Auslanders Raus” graffiti in places like Frankfurt-am-Main and Hamburg. It seemed to contrast so sharply with my own experience of the courtesy and civility of the Germans I dealt with.

          1. Dόn Pídgéόní

            Why, did the Refugee Council of all refugees everywhere cover up sexual abuse and rape committed by it’s members? Did it move members around? Cause those things sound way way more rapey to me then some douche bros groping women – which hey, white douche bros do too!

            Let he without sin etc

  12. Caroline

    They can fck off with their rapefugees. They can fck off with their “we know why they do it”. They don’t even understand why their own brothers, fathers and friends rape people. And wanging on about the dysfunction of Muslim interaction with the opposite sex using a cartoon that would have looked unsophisticated daubed on a cave wall. Great job lads this will be sorted in no time.

    1. meadowlark

      Exactly. We need look no farther than our own doorstep. Look at Cynthia Owens, and how it was ever allowed to happen, and go on for so long, and STILL no justice.

    1. ahjayzis

      No one’s defending the attackers you frothing imbecile. They’re defending the innocent people being lumped in with the attackers because they’re in the same desperate situation re: fleeing from war.

      1. human

        Your just doing mental gymnastics to avoid the horrible reality that your warped world view is not panning out the way you hoped …..

  13. J

    There has been a lot of criticism of the Polizei for doing nothing ( am surprised that austerity monger Mercille did not address the underfunding/cuts to the police force) and also the suggestion made by the Mayor of Koeln that woman should keep strangers at bay to prevent similar incidents. Whilst any rational person would agree with the basic premise that such an incident should not play into the hands of the far right ,nor tar all refugees with the same brush, an article which could have been interesting and though provoking loses it’s effect as it fails to address all facts,

  14. bisted

    …Ratzinger a rapist…and his brother resigned as pope. Good day to hide bad news…not suspicious at all.

  15. Pardon

    loses its effect as it fails to address all facts, fails to address Germany history, fails to address the responses of all sections of German society, fails to address the argument of culture v society, fails to address the issue of integration,fails to address the treatment of migrant women etc etc. I could go on . In fact it fails on all accounts and once again Mercille has proved that his posts are nothing more onerous a struggle than that of being heard . *sigh* . *sigh*

      1. meadowlark

        That’s a good point about Germany’s history, and something which crossed my mind when I was reading.

  16. Clampers Outside!

    A very very disappointing article from Julien. Not one mention of the attempted cover up of the scale of the New Years Eve attacks….. leaves me feeling the whole piece is shallow, one sided and patronising.

    Poor show Julien, can you tell me why you left out the cover up, as you seem to have no problem pointing out how the particular media went the other way in “demonising”, thanks.

    1. J

      Julian recently pounced on the lack of quality content on BS and then penned an Ann and Barry analysis of events in Germany. Schade.

  17. Verbatim

    There is very little difference between Irish men and Muslim men in my experience. It’s the way they are educated, comes from hundreds of years of oppression of women and retaining the status quo.

  18. Tony

    For years I have been traveling to Muslim countries and extolling their virtues to women friends. However, each and every one of them, including those who have been before, all say the same thing- Muslim countries aren’t as safe for western women as they are for men. Women travellers continuously report incidents of harassment in these countries, many being abused simply for what they are wearing. Suddenly, a muslim crowd harasses hundreds of women in europe and women are telling us not to generalise??? Please. There is an attitude to women in Muslim/Arab countries that would sicken most European men. When i see it in practise it sickens me. Thats why I stopped going so frequently, and its not just religious, its cultural. If we are afraid to say that much, then we are lost to the pathetic liberal equalidee crap that stifles sensible debate.

    1. Dόn Pídgéόní

      Yes because I get harassed by Western guys much more than I have ever been harassed by Muslims guys, including when I have been in the Middle East. So don’t come up at me with “not all men” when I say men are skeasy fuppers and you are suddenly so keen to label all Muslim men in the same way.

      Douches be trying to be my douche, it don’t matter where they are from.

      1. classter

        Once can say ‘Not all men’, even ‘Not all Muslim men’ and still have an honest debate/discussion about the relative importance of various cultural norms.

        Pretending that all men everywhere have the same attitudes towards consent, the position of women in society, etc. is silly. We shouldn’t be tarring everyone from certain regions in the world with the same brush but we need to think carefully about this when welcoming & integrating refugees.

        1. Dόn Pídgéόní

          This is what I am trying to do but you get a lot of ridiculous comments on topics like this.

        1. Dόn Pídgéόní

          Why don’t you just call me an ugly hairy lesbian and be done with it? You’ll feel better if you just come clean about what you really think of women who have an opinion that differs from your own rather than just snarking away around the edges.

          Cumberflart.

          1. inPisces

            Because you’re a saucy, feisty minx with attitude.
            Even if you look like the back end of a bus I definitely would.

    2. rotide

      There was an outstanding comment on r eddit a few days ago that outlined the problems with integrating migrants from a radically different culture in this regard

      http://tinyurl.com/guejgmx

      Hopefully the BS censors let this one through

  19. Eoin

    Why couldn’t it have been a thousand Muslim women out groping men? I’d go to Cologne for new years every year for some of that action.

      1. 15 cents

        hahaha, nicely done, Caroline. Eoin, thats a dumb, insensitive comment that belongs in the letter pages of Viz.

  20. 15 cents

    ok, fair enuf, you cant punish 1m people for the actions of 1500/2000. BUT.. you can surely punish the 1500/2000. Anyone they arrested that night should be deported, and then tell the rest that any law breaking and they’ll follow. No three strikes and ur out policy, just one strike. step out of line once and you can eff off back to what you fled. needs to be stamped out hard and early.

    1. Dόn Pídgéόní

      Let’s send anyone who does anything like this to Skease Island where they can skease on each other and leave the rest of us alone.

        1. Nice Anne (Dammit)

          Dear “Neilo”

          Being groped, molested, physically threatened and raped is not getting a “little action”.
          Maybe you are right, you should fupp off to some remote island and stay there.

          1. Neilo

            I was characterizing myself as a mythical skeeze on a mythical island on foot of Don’s riff. Not exactly the start of World War 3 now, is it?

    1. Neilo

      @Bertie: Who will ever remember forget that tense 10 minutes on the Rickman Appreciation Thread last? It was our 9/11.

      1. Bertie Blenkinsop

        I haven’t felt such palpable tension since the last days of Charles and Diana.

        * sits mournfully by the Taj Mahal *

  21. KirkenBrenner

    Hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving from countries where *actual* rape cultures exist?

    That’ll end well.

    1. B Bop

      End of discussion.
      Thank You Chiara…that event was beyond horrific & should always be noted in these arguments.
      This happened as their “Arab Spring” kicked off…to better times.

  22. Mike Baldwin

    The real question here is are Muslims significantly hornier than other religious types? They probably haven’t had internet access in their countries so no Xhamster for relief. Some sort of relationship or sexual counselling might be productive.

  23. Junkface

    What a huge comment section! I think people need to be able to duscuss what happened on NYE in Germany, up to 1000 North African/Arab/Muslim men sexually assaulted women in large numbers simultanaeously, without being called racists. The desciption of events from the women who were assaulted has been likened to “a feeding frenzy”. Some women were quickly surrounded by 20 to 30 men and groped, had clothes ripped off etc. This sounds exactly like the kind of attack that Lara Logan from CBS experienced, although hers was very close to her being ripped apart, limb from limb and killed right in Tahir Square!
    The fact is culturally this is very different behaviour to how women are sexually assaulted in Europe, which is horrible also. As discussed above, there is a huge cultural difference to how women are treated in North African/Middle Eastern countires by men. How many men in these countries get locked up for raping, or attempted raping of women? In these countires sometimes the women get punished for being raped!!

    So what percentage of migrants from these countries are men who have a sexual assault history but have always gotten away with it? We have to assume that assaults on women in North African/Middle Eastern countries is not taken as seriously as it is here in Europe.

    Blaming all migrants is ridiculous and wrong, BUT people need to keep a grip on reality here, not all migrants are angels, and teenage boys from these regions need to be properly educated in European Culture, womens rights and what is acceptable behaviour. Education is the only way breaking down this behaviour. Hopefully people can be a little more Centered in there points of view and not swing wildly to the left or right, as that will get us nowhere.

    1. Bobby

      I agree with everything you said except ‘Hopefully people can be a little more Centered in there points of view and not swing wildly to the left or right, as that will get us nowhere.’

      That’s not realistic, you can’t remove your ideology when it suits. Some on the left are being overly cautious, I agree with that, I’ve made plenty of people wince by saying some of the things I said after the Cologne madness. It was fairly non controversial stuff, but people were uncomfortable with my language towards refugees or migrants who are sexually assaulting people. My attitude on sexism doesn’t shift when a refugee does it. I might be what you call wildly to the left, but I think you’re mis-characterising people to be honest.

      I would consider my opinion on a lot of these things ‘centered’, but not is some nonsense liberal centrist way, in a way that I put time and thought into the ideas that led to my conclusions, which I suppose are ever shifting. Lefties are looking for a way out, and in some circles are discussing the most challenging issues head on. Right wing people are not dong that. For example, these aggressive, patriarchal men who probably sit around all day leering at women and making jokes about them don’t actually care about the women who were assaulted that day, they are just racist and this episode of open misogyny is gold for them.

      Sorry, my point is that I don’t think you should equate people like myself and others with right wing people, it’s not really right. And I don’t think that there is some ‘centrist’ solution either. I know the really loud and official lefties are mad moany and annoying, but most of us don’t have a soapbox and are fairly sound. Yep, all just my view on things. Otherwise, you’re right, there is a problem, lets face it head on!

      1. Bobby

        *nonsense liberal centrist way*

        If you’re a liberal centrist I’m saying it’s nonsense in the sense that from your point of view something like anarchism would be nonsense! No offense..

      2. Junkface

        The Left/Right thing I was trying to address was mainly about the news media also. A lot of Left wing News media and Newspapers were really too slow to report the whole Cologne thing as it did not fit with their agenda (Channel 4 news, the Guardian, which I like). I think that the News should just be reported, regardless of how to package this to fit in with their agendas. I was so annoyed with that and expected better from them.
        I take your point on the right wingers, usually discussions with hate groups and racists go nowhere as they are unwilling to listen to reason, but organisations like Fox news on right (also Some reprters on Sky News) are hugely influential and usually make matters worse in these issues.

        Also the BBC news website should be mentioned for their honesty in reporting the whole thing a couple of days earlier than the above news organisations, just the facts.

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